The real tragedy of Brexit is that it diminishes all United Kingdom citizens — and this includes overseas territory citizens such as Virgin Islanders. The Brexit offers British citizens a future that is hard to envision and unpredictable. It reduces the opportunities for present and future generations to play a full role in the world’s largest economic, cultural and social bloc: the European Union.
To be a citizen of Britain is today a limited affair after the Brexit vote, especially when compared to being a citizen of a Europe of 27 countries that may one day become a federal super state. Prior to Brexit, Virgin Islanders with a UK-EU passport were full EU citizens. Post Brexit, there will be no guarantee that this privilege will remain.
Furthermore, the Brexit vote has unleashed the racist and xenophobic passions of a small minority of Britain’s working class. This has made migrants and even minority Britons insecure and weary. But even more tragic is the fact that many of the leaders of Brexit are today admitting that they stretched the truth about the supposed financial and social benefits of leaving the EU. Then they resigned their posts, effectively admitting that they had deceived the people they governed.
Nostalgia
Okay. Brexit smacks of nostalgia. It is all about emotion. Britain leaving Europe is a hearkening back to the time Britain was a mercantilist world empire.
The British Empire possessed a manufacturing and shipping omniscience that created and distributed the world’s major brands. This was before the advent of the United States as the foremost industrial power post World War II.
In the early 1900s, the British elite were an officer class — an idiosyncratic fraternity of impeccable credentials. Born to ensure the integrity of the king’s or queen’s realm, the British gentleman was schooled at Eton, Harrow, Sandhurst and Oxford. He proceeded from there to a career in the army, politics, clergy, City of London, trading company, or foreign service.
The British Empire was in essence a ruling culture. It was a way of life that was amazing in its efficiency, effectiveness and ruthlessness. It manifested itself in a gentlemanly camaraderie composed of ladies and gentlemen of leisure.
Most of them were men and women of wealth who identified very personally with the ownership of thousands of acres of land in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — hence the phrase “landed gentry.” Some of these members of the British gentry owned scores of villages. As a matter of fact, many of them did not have to work for a living.
The British aristocrat wore pajamas from India and drank Darjeeling teas. When not barking commands to the natives, he played cricket in Bridgetown, chased lions in Kenya, and clashed sticks with fellow officers at the polo club in New Delhi or Singapore. He was the consummate equestrian, a skilful mariner and gifted in the sciences of war.
He ran after butterflies in Burma with a special net. He collected stamps in Cape Town, shot partridges in Aldershot, and led military expeditions in Africa. He would spend the entire day training his parrot in the subtleties of Latin, while a servant handling a large fan kept his master cool from the lethal heat of a mid day sun. In the cool of the evening, he headed for the country club to attend a cocktail party welcoming the colonial viceroy and his royal wife to their new posting.
Working class
On the other side of the class spectrum of the early 1900s, Britain possessed a massive working class. This was the majority of the population. There was no middle class of any significance, as the middle class was just beginning to grow out of the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and the Enlightenment. In essence, these working classes were peasants. They lived in very poor housing, died prematurely, and suffered terribly in winter from their inability to afford adequate heating or even hot food.
The working class was a servant class. Survival meant serving the sons and daughters of wealth and privilege. The peasants were the deferential poor. The British workingman fawned upon his rulers, who he considered his betters and his benefactors. It is paradoxical that it was the progeny of this same class that voted to exit the EU.
That Britain of the early 1900s no longer exists. Britain is today exponentially less powerful that it was then. It remains a world power, however. It is the world’s fifth largest economy. But it could be argued that even that metric is threatened by its withdrawal from Europe.
The world today is governed by regional blocs and superpowers. To have real significance, countries must belong to one of these power polarities.
And make no mistake: Brexit is a very big deal indeed. In the Washington Post on June 27, Matt O’Brien wrote, “This could be the beginning of the end of the euro, the European Union, and the liberal international order itself.”
For the VI, one benefit of Brexit is that Britain is expected to become a type of Singapore-Off-Europe after her divorce from the EU. The country is expected to become a boon for the global one percent as a wealth management paradise. This could offer spinoffs for VI financial services and make the industry more secure after all the ill winds that have been blowing upon it in the past two years.
New PM
Post Brexit, British politics has become a backstabber’s paradise. Further Machiavellian footplay could happen at any moment, and derive from the most unexpected source. Parliamentary politics in Britain is approaching a type of anarchy. The Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, was chosen by Conservative MPs as the post Brexit prime minister, and she began her task on July 13. Ms. May is a steely, unbending and highly intelligent type. She is what a Britain in crisis requires at this time, but she will have her work cut out for her. Her new job, negotiating Britain’s ill-advised exit from the EU, will be no picnic. But then there is no guarantee even that Brexit will take place. A recent poll shows that the buyer’s remorse after Brexit is so great that if a referendum were held today, Britons would stay in the EU. In fact, Brexit looks like a political loser in the medium- to long-term for English politicians.
Bear in mind this fact: Brexit was mostly a Conservative Party internal affair. Then there were the Union Jack fanatics in the UK Independence Party of Nigel Farage, who were the “Hooray Henries” in the process. Brexit was a battle between 200 English politicians at the most. However, the result is that millions of people in Britain, including OT citizens, have been well and truly trampled on.
The Brexit referendum was a simple bet within the British Conservative Party, and former Prime Minister David Cameron lost that bet. Sadly, 70 million people will suffer as a result.
The first tragedy of Brexit is that there is a threat that the UK will not survive as it is presently formed. Scotland and Northern Ireland may well leave the UK in the coming years since they wish to remain in Europe, as evidenced by voting intentions during the Brexit referendum. How that reduction in the UK’s size will affect the VI is above this commentator’s pay grade.
{fcomment}